


Not a god, just a man

by PoisonJack



Series: Not a god, just a man [1]
Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Comfort, Cuddles are awesome, Fluff, General au, Jack Has Issues, Jack enjoys cuddling Rhys, Jack just needs a hug, M/M, Mentions of Character Death, Mentions of dirty dirty smut, No Jack you can't fit comm pieces in there, Post ep. 4, Rhys loves it, just let Rhys do his job christ, rhack - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 17:26:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5013490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonJack/pseuds/PoisonJack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The all powerful lord of death, King of Hyperion, was a cuddler. Rhys wouldn't have it any other way even if Jack was adamant to deny it.</p><p>Post episode 4. Jack's out of Rhys' head and in a new body and the experience comes with more than he expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not a god, just a man

**Author's Note:**

> This ended up being a little more serious than my initial write up. Still fun though. Jack is a fluff lord as long as it's not acknowledged :3

Handsome Jack was a cuddler.

Not that anyone would ever believe that the back-from-the-dead all-powerful death-lord of Hyperion actually enjoyed a good cuddle. Rhys didn't know if it was part of his usual sleeping habits or a byproduct of his current incarnation, but from the get-go Jack couldn't get a good night's sleep unless he was wrapped around Rhys. 

Not that Jack would ever go so far as to admit it. He'd sooner throw Rhys out an airlock than acknowledge the fact- a fact that was adamantly denied even when presented with sneaked photographic evidence to the contrary on Rhys' personal comm. 

The memory of the snapped photo made Rhys grin. His smug face in the foreground, with Jack wrapped around him like a life vest during deep sleep; he'd captured a truly candid moment of one of Hyperion's most dangerous men. The tranquil face of the Jack in the photo was truly at odds with the trademark confidence and well-known arrogance of Hyperion's King and reborn CEO. The smug presentation of the offending snapshot to the man in question had been greeted with a blank expression as he had yanked the device from his subordinate's hands and treated it with the reverence to which it so solely deserved. 

Rhys understood quite well just how many pieces a comm could be smashed into after that day.

But even after that violent display of denial- and the rather creative death threats made against his person involving pieces of said smashed comm- Rhys felt a certain level of smugness with Jack pressed close against his back, arms wrapped around Rhys like a straight jacket in the large bed of Jack's penthouse. The pressure was calming and Jack's familiar scent was soothing to Rhys, and while the younger man knew that it was _he_ who liked the cuddling, it was the powerful man snoring next to him who actually seemed to _need_ it, regardless of what he said to the contrary. 

Rhys suspected it had something to do with the time Jack had spent stuck in his head; he suspected many facets of his life had to do with that. Whether he openly admitted it or not, Jack liked having him around and took comfort in his presence. The same could be said for Rhys. Jack had gladly let Rhys take up co-presidency of Hyperion after they'd gotten Jack back up top, but as much as he hated to admit it, running it was just too much for one man and how Jack had ever managed was beyond him. Not to mention he wasn't willing to murder nearly as many employees as Jack suggested in order to turn things around. He took a preferred second-in-command position instead, which was still about the same amount of work, but came with a lot more stress-fucking and a lot less delegating than he could've ever foreseen. That part was fun at least. And it helped him sleep better at night back in his old bed, his conscience unburdened by the weight of excessive murders.

It was hard at first, after they'd gotten Jack back into a body. Aside from having to acclimate to proper sleep and eating and not getting to make Rhys hit himself whenever he wanted- a fact Jack truly lamented- Jack regularly suffered from nightmares. One would think with all the shit Jack had seen and been through in life- being the heroic badass that he was- that nothing would phase him. But it had been two years since they'd gotten Jack out of Rhys' head and still Jack couldn't sleep a full night through without being tucked around Rhys, regardless of how adamantly he declared it was Rhys that wanted it and that he was still just his good ol' badass self. Jack would either forgo sleep if he could, or if he'd woken from a nightmare, just work on some project that needed doing before the workday actually began. The bags under his eyes told Rhys all he needed to know, and the invitation for an overnight stay was usually extended.

Aside from immediately restoring order from chaos as he reclaimed Hyperion proper, Jack had several immediate tasks he'd wanted to take care of when he was back in the flesh. Things Rhys told him he'd be better off ignoring. He had wiped out several department heads that had no business being in the positions they were in; completely reorganized the power structure from weapons to R&D to even the cafeteria employee roster; and though Rhys tried to persuade him not to, he'd managed to retrieve footage from his bots of his death. 

That had thoroughly rattled him even though he claimed it didn't phase him at all. Rhys didn't want to watch it, but Jack hadn't blinked. Dying changed a person whether he wanted to accept it or not, but actually seeing it was another thing. If his nightmares hadn't featured his death before, they certainly would now. Watching it over and over in disbelief until Rhys aborted the program was just madness. Jack had fucked Rhys all night that night as if to prove how alive he really was. They'd spent the better half of the next day curled around one another in bed.

Then he had found out about Angel. Rhys didn't even know Jack had had a daughter- no one did. But to find out he'd been the catalyst to her self-destruction, that she had died hating him; that had affected Jack very differently.

Rhys wouldn't say he was depressed per se. Secretly full of regrets, vengeful, murderous, okay, but not depressed. Handsome Jack didn't get depressed. But he definitely threw himself full throttle into getting Hyperion back on top in the business and taking shit from nothing and no one. Things were back from their post-Jack chaos quicker than Rhys ever assumed was possible what with the power-hungry squabbling and back stabbing going on. Jack hadn't slept for well over a week, cat-naps aside, putting Hyperion as his number one priority and settling for nothing short of perfection. Rhys had physically dragged him away from his chair to rest on the couch in his office after a week straight of that nonsense. With Rhys below him and his flesh and cybernetic arms locked around his middle, Jack had finally slept through exhaustion for the first time in days. 

After that Jack had started dragging Rhys home with him, usually for some quick and dirty sex, then ending in curling himself around the younger man without a word and falling asleep. Rhys thought it was the stress of the week and that this cuddly, sex-crazed Jack would soon come to pass, no matter how much he enjoyed being wrapped up in the older man's arms. But it continued even as Jack appeared to become more relaxed. 

The nightmares didn't happen every night, but they were frequent. Jack never told him what they were about, and anything he said in his sleep Rhys never brought up. It was good enough for Rhys to just wrap his arm around the other man and they'd both fall back asleep. The more frequently Rhys slept in his bed, the less frequently the nightmares happened. And it soon became less about sex and more about octopusing himself around the younger man as he dragged Rhys away every night. That he needed Rhys made the younger man inwardly gloat, and he preened with the attention.

To say the all-powerful ruler of Hyperion was highly strung was putting it mildly, and to think some hard and fast fucking would quickly put all things right was a little too simple for a complicated man like Jack. The sex was a nice cover, he thought later, for what Jack really wanted in his life. What he craved. And that was closeness to another human being, holding and being held. It was sappy as hell, and Rhys loved it.

Rhys thought it was dumb to not just come out and say he wanted to cuddle the younger man, as if he were simply another mere mortal that wanted the basest of human comforts, and honestly Rhys thought he was quite the peach so who _wouldn't_ want to cuddle him given the choice? But Jack being Handsome Jack couldn't admit to being human in any way, being the twice born God of Hyperion that he was. Rhys learned to wrap his arms about the CEO when he sensed the man needed a good cuddle, and for all Jack protested, he secretly reveled in it.

The day leading up to the night Jack was currently wrapped around him in bed, Rhys had heard ten people called into the office that day while he was off running various errands, and less than half had made it back out alive. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't been a little concerned when Jack had angrily called him away from his tasks in quite a fit over why the hell he wasn't in the office doing his job. What that job was supposed to be, Rhys wasn't sure, because he was already out _doing_ it. 

Secure or not in what could _loosely_ be called a healthy relationship, Jack was still unpredictable, and with the mood he was in, Rhys couldn't be one hundred percent sure if this ride up wouldn't be his last. Jack scared and excited him, and if he didn't he probably wouldn't be the obsessed little fanboy Jack claimed he was. But a rather fun hour of what Rhys could almost definitely call _affectionate_ touches and coffee flavored kisses had effectively calmed Rhys' nerves. Jack was stressed, he was lonely, he was horny, and he wanted Rhys. The cybernetic man shouldn't have been surprised in the least that he'd get into a snit over that.

Jack might've been teasing him about how much Rhys must feel neglected without big bad Handsome Jack to take care of him as the CEO had been rather late at the office all week, and how he must be losing sleep without the strong hero there to ease his worries, but Rhys' true concerns had been if he was about to be personally escorted out the airlock for some reason or other. Idiot that he was, he often forgot that Jack's childish tantrums were just part of the whole package that he was stupidly attracted to, and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't as addicted to the attention as Jack was to him.

The whole encounter in Jack's office ended in being bent over Jack's large, expensive desk, an unapologetic mess in his pants and a whispered demand disguised as an invite to Jack's suite that night. Though the way Jack phrased things, one would think he was doing Rhys a personal favor in having him stay over, reassuring him that he was Jack's favorite plaything, and that Jack was willing to indulge all his silly worries if only because Rhys' face looked "funny" when he thought he was about to be murdered. This was all a game by now, and sometimes Rhys just wished Jack would admit that he missed him in his bed. Lord knew Rhys started thinking of Jack's bed as his usual place instead of his own semi-double.

All in all, Rhys felt as if he'd been worried for nothing, and once again chastised himself for taking any of Jack's threats seriously because at this point if Jack actually did do anything, the man would never sleep again. That was in itself a risk Jack was not willing to take.

So after rather desperate fucking back in Jack's unnecessarily large bed, his body covered in bites and hickeys and deliciously sore in a great many number of places, Rhys was ensconced tightly, but not uncomfortably, in Jack's arms. Though the older man chastised Rhys for being such a clingy little nerd, putting all his insecurities onto the younger man, it was Jack who was holding onto Rhys like he was the last rocket off Pandora. And he felt a certain level of smugness at that.

He also felt a certain need to empty his full bladder. 

But getting out of Jack's grip proved more difficult than one might think, considering Jack's adamant denial that he was NOT a cuddler. 

Rhys tried to squirm out from Jack's embrace without waking the other man, freeing a foot to gain leverage against the edge of the expensive mattress. He was able to tug himself just barely, flesh arm trapped beneath Jack's forearm. He looked to his mechanical arm in vain, the limb removed and on recharge after being rather thoroughly fucked. It could stand to get a good cleaning too after the things they'd done tonight.

"Jack," he murmured, rocking back into the other man. He got a sleep-addled growl as Jack's arms constricted around him, his forehead pressing into Rhys' back. The younger man slid his arm over his torso behind him, coming in contact with the naked flesh of Jack's hip. He gave a light shake, only for half-lidded eyes to meet his own before burying his face back in Rhys' back and pulling him closer. 

"Jack, toilet," Rhys prodded, pulling away from the older man's grip. Jack exhaled through his nose before loosening his grip, and Rhys was able to finally slip out as the older man rolled onto his back.

Rhys came back to find Jack spread in the middle of the bed like a starfish, mouth slightly open and chest rising and falling slowly. Rhys wondered if it was worth it to try to sneak another picture as Jack was truly a different person all sleepy and peaceful. This was an image he wanted forever tattooed on his brain. 

Though on second thought, the most powerful man on Helios might not find the idea half as endearing as he, and frankly, it wasn't worth risking the broken comm pieces shoved into various orifices over a sight he regularly got treated to see. 

One could almost call Jack's face sweet during sleep; no frowning, no arrogant and condescending smirk, no messy death threats. Not Handsome Jack. Just Jack, the man who got a second chance and liked ketchup on his eggs and enjoyed cuddling and liked to walk around in old sweat pants at home. Badass his ass. 

Rhys gently climbed back into the large, overly expensive bed and pulled the blankets back over himself. He tried to lay down softly so as not to disturb Jack again, but the other man groped for him as soon as he was settled, and pulled Rhys to him chest to chest, never once opening his eyes. Jack's nose was pressed against Rhys' forehead and one of his legs wrapped between his own as Jack hummed slightly and his breathing evened out. 

Rhys sighed, being more smug than anyone had a right to at four in the morning. He tucked his head under Jack's chin as the Hyperion CEO inhaled deeply, arms constricting around Rhys momentarily, loosening just slightly on the exhale. Rhys smiled into Jack's skin, trying to catch a glimpse of his relaxed face. Jack lightly frowned, not even bothering to open his eyes.

"Go to sleep, kitten."

Rhys knew Jack could feel the shit-eating grin as he pressed his face into Jack's chest, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. Jack could make fun of him all he wanted about the posters, the coffee mugs, the memo paper with Jack's face plastered all over it, how he got off just to Jack's voice talking dirty to him.

Because if Rhys was the pathetic fanboy obsessed with Handsome Jack, then he was pretty sure Handsome Jack being obsessed with cuddling him throughout the night somehow made Jack even more pathetic.

That knowledge was worth a thousand pictures.

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually the first piece of Borderlands trash I ever wrote, though it's the third I'm posting after a major rewrite. Figured I should get it up before we all lose our shit with the next episode coming out XD Hope it wasn't too long winded. I felt like that at some parts D: Hope you enjoyed anyways!
> 
> [my tumblr](http://purge-that-urge-rhackathon.tumblr.com/) | [my fic masterlist archive](http://purge-that-urge-rhackathon.tumblr.com/post/134979026515/poisonjack-ao3-fic-archive)


End file.
